The Voice playing musical spinning chairs? Which judges are heading out after this season?

Yesterday was day three of The Voice and already some judges are talking about leaving. You know what they say… If you can’t compete with the X-Factor, get out of the kitchen.. or something like that.

Christina Aguilera says that she is out next season. She doesn’t want to give up her gig entirely but just take a break to ‘fulfill her creative soul’ (which I’m pretty sure is slang for booze) but the producers assured her that she can come any time she wants.

She said, “I just need to do my thing for a minute then I can come back and be that much better of a coach.” Isn’t that what they all say until Britney Spears comes along and steals all the attention?

The producer Mark Burnett actually said, “Here’s the fact we decided: When you’ve been on this show, that’s your chair for life. So if they have to tour and someone comes in for a season and then goes out for a season, comes back for a season, there will never be anyone getting replaced, ever. It’s going to be moving pieces all the time. And luckily maybe a couple of them go on tour, a couple of them don’t go on tour. They have an obligation to their fans. And so that’s how we’re going to do it.”

Blake Shelton wants to check out of the show too but he doesn’t agree with the concept of seasonal replacements. He said it would be hard to walk away knowing someone else would be taking his place but he’s ready to become to a ‘music person’ again before he turns completely into a ‘tv person’.

Blake also had some choice words to say about Simon Cowell. He thinks Simon started this b-fest when he griped about the Voice extending their premiere an extra day to compete with The X-Factor’s debut… and he thinks Simon needs to shut up!

He said, “Don’t y’all wish you had time to sit around and bitch and moan like that guy does?  Every time I turn around, he’s mouthing off about our show. It’s like, ‘Do your own show!  Come on!  Put something together there and do your thing.  We’ll just do ours and we won’t mouth off about you.’ . . . The guy must just have more free time than he knows what to do with.”

So with The Voice and X-Factor going head to head last night, who won?

X-Factor’s ratings were down 25% from last year’s premiere. That’s a huge drop considering they shelled out millions for new judges Demi Lovato and Britney Spears.

But Fox will tell you that they won prime time for the night, which is true. But NBC was quick to point out that in the one hour when the X factor was head to head against the Voice, the Voice came out on top by over two million viewers. So round one (boxing bell) goes to The Voice.

TMZ asked Simon Cowell how he felt about the competition.